


you and I will not be shaken

by gialaxy



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: College AU, F/M, Modern AU, Tags Subject to Change, also shameless fluff, basically a whole bunch of zutara aus, some appearances by the Gaang but mostly just zuko and katara being dorks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-22 02:55:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9579371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gialaxy/pseuds/gialaxy
Summary: In which Zuko is an awkward barista, Katara is obsessed with 'vandalizing' her customers' food, and they bond over a love for instant noodles and microwavable food. In which Zuko rambles about space at ungodly hours, and Katara is desperate to shut him up.A series of Modern AU oneshotsor my excuse to write drabble and not work on my WIPs.





	1. Vandalism, Contrast & Fries

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Words:** ~1300  
>  **Prompt:** _“The manager says the only reason the restaurant where we work at is popular is because people enjoy eating while watching our relentless flirting with each other but I swear to God we’re not flirting???” AU_ with a hint of _“You’re the jerk-face customer that keeps on thumbing through their phone while ordering their drink so I exact revenge by spelling your name wrong on your cup and drawing phallic pictures on your coffee” AU_
> 
> PS: All the prompts come from [this post](http://onetruepairingideas.tumblr.com/post/153240772020/one-cannot-have-enough-of-cute-and-random-aus-so)!  
> PPS: The title of this work comes from [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cgiKevlNQo) which is one of my all-time favorite songs ever, ever (yes, I know, the lyric video is a little weird but the song is amazing!!).

“Katara, did you put chili in table seven’s regular fries _again_?”

Zuko’s voice is laced with amusement and annoyance. Working alongside Katara at the barbecue franchise in the side of a mall means there are no boring days. It also means he constantly has to put up with her petty ways of taking out her hate on customers who scroll through Instagram while ordering, or use up the ketchup bottles but don't finish their serving. 

“Of course not,” comes Katara’s voice, cheeky with mischief, from the other side of the counter. “I put extra pickles in their no-pickle burger. Honestly, it’s like they have nothing better to do on a Friday afternoon than complain to the waiters.” 

“And she continues to be cruel,” Zuko mutters, smirking.

“Come on, Zuko, it’s not like you don't hate on your terrible customers every now and then,” she chides, shrugging as she picks up a tray on the counter, moving to bring it to it’s table. 

“I do,” he admits placidly, “but I do so _inwardly_.” 

She sticks out her tongue at him, and saunters across the restaurant to Table 20, placing the tray of onion rings and hot dogs in the centre.

She skips back over. “There’s no fun in that,” she pokes his shoulder, rather painfully. “I can't believe I’ve been working with you since the summer started and you still haven't learned my wayward ways.” They’ve been working the afternoon shift together, from two to eight every day except weekends since June. 

“What, the art of spilling ginger ale all over their hamburger and blaming it on how your finger twitches because your bracelet is too tight?” Zuko snorts. 

“It is an art, Zuko, and I have mastered it quite successfully, I’ll say.” 

“I think Table 20 just realized that you put lime juice between the bun and the sausage, so maybe let the customers say.” He teases, and she dips a finger in a puddle of suspicious water on the counter and flicks it at his face. He chuckles. 

“It's effective, too. De-stresses.” Katara says simply. 

“Yes, because violently shaking a salt shaker as fast as humanly possible is everyone’s idea of a relaxing time,” He smirks and she scowls. 

“I have more artful ways of doing this, you know. Such as, putting a healthy dose of lime juice in their coke.” She flicks more water at his face, and he laughs as he waves her hand away. “Or flicking water at annoying coworkers.”

“Zuko, Katara, my office, now. It’s… important.” The voice of their manager interrupts them, and they exchange looks of surprise, followed by shrugs, as they turn to head into the manager’s office. 

Kuei, the manager, is sitting at his desk, somewhat preoccupied. “Have a seat,” he indicates the two chairs across from his. 

“Now, I know you two are aware that this restaurant isn't exactly known for it’s quality food.” Kuei sighs. “We have exactly one good chef, and you two egged his house last month. We have one small collection of regulars, even though you-” a pointed glare at Katara from over his small glasses, “insist on ruining their food. Why do they stay, why do people come at all, we all wonder?” 

Zuko and Katara exchange another glance of surprised concern. “Good question,” Zuko says finally. “We don't know.” 

“They keep coming back because of _you two_. Your banter and constant flirting, they keep coming back to see if you've finally decided to date, or if you’re still all flirty. I think most of the staff still works with us because of that.”

“We- what? It’s not- _flirting_ ,” Katara sputters indignantly.

“We don't flirt! It's… quick-witted conversation.” Zuko affirms in a cool tone. 

“Sure,” Kuei replies, unfazed. “Sure it is. What I'm saying is, don't date. If you do, everyone will go home happy and angst-free, and never think twice about the barbecue place in the corner of the mall.” 

“Mr. Kuei, that, uh, that _won’t_ be a problem.” Katara stutters, ever the diplomat.

“She’s right!” He nods in overly enthusiastic agreement. 

“Good to hear, Katara. You're dismissed.” Kuei says, eyeing them conspicuously.

They both stumble out of Kuei’s office, a bit too shaken up and unable to meet each other’s eyes.

They’re back to where they were standing before, leaning against the counter, but this time the friendly playfulness is gone, replaced by awkward silence.

“That, uh, that was eventful,” Zuko says, rubbing the back of his neck. 

“It was,” she replies a little too quickly. “Um, oh, look, um, I should probably, uh, take this to a table.” She nods to a tray with two chicken burgers, fries and a very large fountain drink. The label reads 34.

“Thirty-four,” Zuko says, trying to end the silence that stretches taut between them. “Isn't that the table with the guy who whined about not being able to read the menu? Something about contrast?” 

“Oh, right,” she says, her eyes brightening. “I should probably vandalize this, yeah?” She indicates the tray she’s holding. 

He grins lopsidedly. “How about some sugar in the fries? That’ll teach him about contrast.”

“That's the spirit, Zuko,” she laughs, and grabbing the sugar shaker from the counter, she dumps a large deal on their fries.

  


* * *

  


Their shift ends when balmy purple twilight begins to shift into the sky. They leave the mall together, and head into the parking lot, where his red car is parked, and where the entrance to the subway she takes home is. 

They make pleasant talk, but the conversation in Kuei’s office threw their precarious banterful relationship off-balance. 

“And _that_ is why Inception is the best movie of all time,” Katara says happily. 

“Because the wife is actually dead? The ending is part of the dream!” Zuko exclaims, laughing loudly.

“Fine, then what’s _your_ favorite movie?” She shoots back. 

“Easy,” he shrugs. “The Da Vinci Code.” 

“I haven't seen it.”

“No way,” Zuko exclaims, incredulous. They’ve reached his car and she's reached the subway entrance, and this happens every evening: neither of them want to part ways, but it must be done. Silence falls over them once more. 

Katara is the first to break it. “What Kuei said…” she starts. “We- we’re not likely… to date, are we?”

Zuko frowns. “Uh…” 

“Because, you shut it down so easily, and- it’s- I…” she trails off, her facing becoming solid and impassive. “It’s nothing. Go home. See you Monday.” She begins to turn around. 

“Katara,” he says softly, and she turns again. “I know it’s not nothing. You can talk to me.” 

“It’s just that- us, you, me, what Kuei said… I don't...” She says after a moment’s hesitation, and her cheeks go vibrant red and he understands. 

He understands, so he steps forward in two quick strides and he’s standing in front of her, a fair distance but still close.

She looks up at him -he’s nearly a head taller than she is- and into his eyes. 

“It's just…” she sighs, giving up on words and for a moment he fears she’s going to walk away. Walk away and leave him standing there. 

But instead, she grabs the collar of his unzipped sweater and pulls him down, and she reaches up to him on her tiptoes and kisses him.

He freezes for a moment, and her heart stops, and she fears he didn't want this and that she ruined everything, but then he relaxes and he’s kissing her back, colliding at last. His mouth moves against hers, teeth grazing her bottom lip, sending shivers down her spine. She links her arms behind his neck and his arm finds its way around her waist, and she pulls back to rest her forehead against his, his amber eyes open.

“Hi,” she whispers. 

He smiles and thunder goes off in her heart. “Hey,” he says hoarsely. 

She kisses him again, lightly this time. 

“That was nice,” she breathes after pulling away again.

“I say it’s about time you watched the Da Vinci Code. How about that?” His smile is sweet and she remembers how much she loves it. He pulls away and takes her hand, standing next to her. She smiles back up at him.

  


* * *

  


He’s waiting for her by the counter on Monday, and she walks over to peck a kiss to his lips. 

Kuei fires them immediately.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, okay, I shamelessly made Katara's favorite movie Inception, and if you haven't seen it, go do that. Right now. It's beyond incredible. As for my reasoning to make The Da Vinci Code Zuko's favorite, I have none. They're BOTH exceptional movies and?? yeah?? 
> 
> Andrea xx


	2. Supernovas, Space and Prison Reform

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Words:** ~700  
>  **Prompt:** _“You’re my roommate and it’s way past midnight and you’re talking about how Charles Dickens inspired prison reform and how the moon must feel insignificant because it borrows light from the sun and this is all very interesting but will you please shut up and go to sleep” AU._
> 
> Zuko is such a space nerd in this....but.... I will stand by this headcanon....

“Do you ever wonder if the moon feels insignificant because it steals light from the sun? What if the sun feels cheated, ‘cause the moon is stealing some of it’s light?” 

Katara rolls her eyes as much as one can, smashing her face into a pillow. It’s nearly one in the morning and Zuko is still talking. 

“And to us, the sun is like, this _massive_ ball of fire, right? Because it’s the closest star to our planet, and the turning point of our _whole_ solar system,” he goes on. “But there are stars just millions of light years away that are maybe five hundred times bigger?”

Katara is seething. “Zuko, this is all very interesting, but would you _please_ -”

“So basically, what we think is this colossal giant is really small compared to every other thing like it? So does that make our sun the unloved youngest child? When, to us, it’s huge?” Zuko is waving his arms wildly, in what she thinks is gestures that help illustrate his point. But to Katara, his point is nonexistent and it doesn’t help that he’s cycled into talking very quickly. It’s been a while of them being roommates, and she’s never quite known what to make of him. On one hand, he’s sweet and quirky, and -she'd be lying if she says otherwise- freaking _gorgeous_ , and she can't help crushing on him, ( _Is this middle school or something?_ , she reprimanded herself) and he's giving less-than-subtle hints that her feelings are reciprocated, but on the other hand, nights like _this_ tend to make her despise him.

“Supernovas!” He exclaims suddenly. She finds it increasingly difficult not to love the glitter of passion in his eyes as he goes on about space. “Supernovas are great. Isn’t it poetic that something so catastrophic can look so beautiful? A star literally explodes, obliterating itself into space dust, and supernovas are still some of the most beautiful stellar events. Nebulas are pretty too, but pale in comparison to supernovas.” 

Katara suddenly regrets not complaining more adamantly when the university accidentally paired them as roommates. He’s a major in astronomy and a minor in English, which makes his long-night rambles all the more terrifying: long regular words and long space words mashed up to make sentences she doesn’t understand.

Currently, he’s sitting in the desk chair in the corner of her tiny room inside their joined apartment (which they split down the middle and exaggeratedly call each side their ‘room’).

She throws him a withering glare and covers her face with a pillow. Really, though, she’s contemplating other ways to shut him up. Kissing him flashes through her mind briefly. “Zuko,” she says, her voice muffled, throwing that thought out of her mind. “I swear to _God_ if you don’t get out of my room right now and take your confusing space talk with you…”

“Fine. I won’t talk about space. But did you know that Charles Dickens technically caused prison reform?” Zuko replies.

Actually, she doesn’t know. He takes her silence as an invitation to keep talking.

“Some guy in my class tried comparing that to the Greek myth of Perseus and Medusa, though I don’t understand how they’re any similar. In the myth, Perseus, a Greek hero, decides he wants to kill a lunatic Gorgon who can turn people into stone.” Zuko frowns. “It’s nothing like Dickens and reform. That kid… he’s not the brightest.”

She raises a corner of the pillow to give him an incredulous stare, with a raised eyebrow that seems to say, _that’s how you best describe Perseus and Medusa?_

He grins and shrugs. “My classics professor doesn’t particularly care for Medusa and Perseus, so we never went into detail. He’s not a very considerate guy. Though I have read the myth several times, I figured I’d explain it simpler for-”

“Just go to sleep, Zuko,” she mumbles, dropping the pillow back onto her face. For a few seconds, he is quiet. And she thinks, finally. 

Then,

“But did you know that there may be life on Saturn’s moon Enceladus?” 

He takes a breath to keep talking, and she decides she’s had enough. She kicks off the blankets and throws the pillow back onto the bed, and she stands.

“It’s basically just covered in ice, but those could just be the clouds. Scientists have confirmed that there’s water on it and-”

He stops talking, because she takes his face in her hands and kisses him. 

He’s frozen in place for a heartbeat before he kisses her back, and when she pulls back he’s stunned into silence, his face bright red. She flops back down on her bed, and pulls the covers up.

The silence is somewhat tense, until she says:

“That shut you up, didn’t it?”

He almost chokes on air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this was super rushed & crappy but??? yeah???? I'm such trash oh my God.
> 
> (yes, I'm aware, I'm such a fricking dork and I just love this ship so much, even though I'm cringy as hell ok goodbye world)  
> Andrea xx


	3. An Instant Noodle Odyssey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Words:** 600  
>  **Prompt:** _?“I work part-time as a cashier at the local corner store and you come here regularly to shop and bond with me over the microwavable chicken bites so how about I take you out on a proper date instead?” AU_
> 
> I literally have no excuse for this other than I wanted to write banter between them so bad?? THIS sucks though & it's pretty short (yes the ending was necessary, I was going to leave it at just banter but ughh it felt so incomplete??)
> 
> anyway

“More microwavable junk?” Katara asks, amused, as Zuko yet again dumps an armful of microwavable chicken bites, frozen pierogies and instant noodle containers on the conveyor belt. 

“And you’re surprised by that?” he replies. Zuko comes to the campus general store where Katara works part-time almost every other evening, always right during her shift. He’s two years ahead of her and majoring in English and astronomy, which makes him unbearably witty and insanely geeky. He comes often enough they’re on friendly terms, to the point where she can freely insult his poor food choices without much backlash.

“Surprised by the fact you’re not dead and consumed by the sheer amount of chemicals in this abomination,” she snorts, swiping a container of extra-spicy instant noodles under the red light and chucking it into a plastic bag. “But they’re delicious, so I can’t say I won’t end up the same.”

He lets out a single-breath ha, which is an annoyed laugh in Zuko’s language. “Must you make all my food choices morbid?” 

“Then it’s a shame you’re always here at the same time I am. If you come three hours earlier, I’m sure Pipsqueak would love to lecture you on the benefits of lacrosse while also eating half your instant noodles _cold_.” 

“He sounds like a cool guy,” Zuko shrugs. “You know if he’s read Hamlet? I could probably manage to drop by a little earlier,” he smirks and she throws him a glare that is pure ice, because _of course_ Pipsqueak hasn’t read Hamlet, and she actually enjoys his company, so god forbid he come earlier.

“Are you cramming for finals tonight?” Katara asks without thinking. 

“I finished all of mine yesterday,” he says with relief, although a little surprised at her question.

“So you’re free later?” She’s amazed at how her voice _isnt_ shaking the way it usually does when she talks to him. Normally, she isn't like this, but maybe it’s the full moon that brings out a bravery in her.

“Are you trying to ask me out?” Zuko’s smirking now, without even trying to hide it. She doesn't let her eyes linger on his lips a moment longer. 

“Y- well, not if you don't want me to be!” She’s almost yelling and she knows it. 

He smiles and _laughs_. She’s never heard him laugh before- usually just a chuckle or a snicker are the most onomatopoeic sounds she can get out of him.

“I don't-” she sighs, about to give up as she rather forcefully slams a box of frozen dumplings onto the scanner. “I don't mean it like that. I’m trying to say ‘hey, it seems like you always eat crap for dinner so why don't I take you to eat real food?’ but I guess you hate me now.” 

Her tone is almost acidic with the amount of sarcasm it contains, but he can tell she means it, as she hands him a plastic bag.

“I’d like that,” he says simply, glancing at the screen that says the total amount in green digits, before depositing a ten dollar bill and four two-dollar coins on the counter.

She scoops the money into the register, eyes wide, and hands shaking. “My shift ends at nine.”

“I’ll come pick you up,” he says. 

And just like that, she thinks as he walks away with a slight smirk (but she doesn’t miss the pink on his cheeks) she managed to ask out the easily most attractive boy on campus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A quick sneak peek from the next chapter!!
> 
> _Her grin changes into something mischievous, and it seems to tell him that Toph was right- she only does come to the coffee shop to talk to him.  
> _
> 
> andrea xx


	4. Cigarettes & Coffee Cups

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Words:** ~1200  
>  **Prompt:** _“You’re the health-conscious med student and I’m the chain-smoking art student who’s also your barista and you leave me notes on smoking and lung health on your napkins and also a 20-page essay on lung cancer tucked under you saucer” AU._
> 
> This is the last one of my huge stockpile of modern AUs, but I'll be writing some more soon!!

He finds a note under her coffee cup again. This time, she’s decided to emphasize her hate for his smoking habit. Of course, the only nice customer at the coffee shop he works at is a hypochondriac med student who stares at him for prolonged periods of time. Not that he minds that last part, because she’s actually quite pretty.

Today, he finds an entire napkin covered in neat print detailing how deadly lung cancer is, and his (admittedly high) odds of being diagnosed with it. Of course, the only pretty girl that seems to be into him is medically outraged by everything he does, including his smoking habit, the tattoos he has on his left bicep and now, his neck-rolling.

He stuffs the note into his pocket, picking up her coffee cup and taking it back to the kitchen. 

“Another note from cute med girl?” Toph says from the cash register, as Zuko slides behind the counter. 

Zuko nods, before remembering the girl is blind, so he replies with a quick ‘yeah’ followed by a, “You wouldn't know if she’s cute or not.”

“Sure, but by the way your heartbeat picks up when she walks in, I can only guess. That, or she’s really scary. But no one’s scarier than me.” Toph announces proudly.

“Just because you’re the manager’s kid doesn't mean you get to pick on us all without consequence,” Zuko replies, narrowing his eyes at her.

She grabs a brownie from the display case, tossing it into her mouth. “Who’s ‘us all’? I’m only mean to you, cause you’re such a lovesick dork, dork.” Toph snorts.

Zuko rolls his eyes at her _blatant_ lie (not that he’s a dork, that she doesn't pick on anyone else- just ask Suki or Ty Lee) instead setting about making a soy-milk strawberry frap for someone named Aang. 

“You got the time?” Toph asks, and he replies with a quick “one twenty-five” and she grimaces, and says, “I gotta dash. At least make an _effort_ with the girl when she comes by later just to see you.”

“She does _not_ come by just to see me!” Zuko exclaims, his cheeks almost as pink as the frap he’s now closing lid on and sliding across the counter, to a kid with an arrow tattooed down the backs of his hands. Zuko doesn’t miss how he ogles at Toph, who’s now leaning against the cupboards in the back, black hair pulled up into a bun, one hand holding a brownie, the other shoved into the pocket of her large green hoodie.

“You bet she does,” Toph replies, smirking. “See ya later, Zuko!” She vaults over the counter and saunters out of the shop, her sightless eyes staring blankly ahead. The kid with the arrow tattoos is frozen in place, staring after her, his eyes almost bulging out of his head. Zuko chuckles to himself, before wondering, briefly, if that’s how _he_ must look like whenever the med student sits at her usual table.

“Hey kid,” Zuko says before the boy sits down, once Toph is safely outside. “If you want to ask her out, she likes sushi.” He glances over to the outside of the coffeeshop, where Toph is walking away. The kid nods and laughs a little nervously. 

“I-uh, I’ll keep that in mind,” he rubs the back of his neck, taking a long slurp of his frappuccino. “I’m Aang, by the way.”

“Zuko,” he says.

“You must be-” Aang’s eyes light up, and his knowing grin is almost childish. He quickly makes an overly careless face, and takes a sip of his drink, before waving his hand and says, “Then you must know my friend Katara.”

“The med student who was here ten minutes ago?” Zuko is trying not to show how deeply frazzled he is. Though by the sudden cracking in his voice and the flush in his cheeks, he supposes Aang knows something about her that Zuko doesn’t.

“Oh, yeah,” Aang’s eyebrows go up lazily, before he starts suddenly and races out of the shop, legs pinwheeling almost cartoonishly. “Aaaanyway, I gotta go, catch you later Zuko!” The boy is speaking so quickly Zuko has a hard time understanding him, but waves goodbye nervously.

* * *

The med student is there in the evening, as Toph said she would be. But he still hasn’t worked up the courage to talk to her, so he hides in the kitchen with Ty Lee, the baker, until the med student leaves, when he sees a note tucked under her saucer. The note is on white lined paper, splashed with telltale drops of coffee, with dark pencil lines in her neat print, reads:

> _@ the cute barista with the golden eyes-_  
>  Stop rolling your neck! Can cause the cervical discs to rub together  & shave off and that’s VERY BAD. Compresses arteries and nerves at the base of the skull = not enough O2 in your brain = dizziness, numbness = BAD.  
>  love,  
>  K  
>  PS: stop smoking. I mean it. 

  
He can’t stop his smile at the opening line, but rolls his eyes as he reads on. _Of course_ , he thinks, _the only girl that likes me is also obsessed with every unhealthy thing I do._

Later, as he’s leaving the coffee shop later that night, about to light the cigarette that hangs between his lips, he sees her walking in the opposite direction. Her dark hair is pulled into a messy high ponytail, a white bag shaped like five large textbooks slung over her shoulder. She sees him, and he sees her, and he realizes she’s a lot more beautiful out of the dim light of the coffee shop.

“Oh, hey,” she says, somewhat breathlessly. Throwing a glare at the cigarette in his mouth, she adds, “Did you read my note? I said those things will kill you. Twice today.”

He shrugs, taking the cigarette out of his mouth. “Maybe they will,” he says. 

She reaches forward and snatches the cigarette out of his hand, dropping it to the ground and squashing it with her foot. “It’s like you don’t even care,” she replies sharply.

He doesn’t reply, and instead looks into her eyes ( _how can one person’s eyes be so blue?_ he wonders), and he feels a familiar warmth creeping up his neck and ears, and he realizes, rather dimly, that it’s his turn to talk. He remembers what Aang said to him back in the coffee shop -You must know my friend, Katara!- and his knowing smirk. Zuko hesitates for a breath, then: 

“You want to get something to eat?” He asks, somewhat liltingly.“Or, coffee, or something?”

She grins, and it seems to glow on her face. “Oh, yeah, sure,” she says, as though she thought he’d never ask, “but I’ve had coffee twice today. And I never drink coffee.” Her grin changes into something mischievous, and it seems to tell him that Toph was right- she only does come to the coffee shop to talk to him. 

He smiles down at her, and the heat in his neck rises into his face, tinting his cheeks pink as she reaches forward and takes his hand, and starts walking toward a cluster of restaurants on the west side of campus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you have any prompts/requests please feel free to leave them below!!
> 
> andrea xx


	5. Dark and Stormy Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Words:** ~600  
>  **Prompt:** horror movies that induce a lot of hand holding (i'd imagine from zuko more but that's just me)  
>  This was made with a prompt from the incredibly sweet and lovely @optimise!! thanks again, this chapter would be (literally) nonexistent without your kind comments <3  
> (and yes, the title of this chapter is worse than terrible but what can I say?)

“Come on, Zuko, it’s just Sleepy Hollow!” Katara exclaims, brandishing the remote in front of the television, her finger already pushing down on the select button. 

Her boyfriend looks a little uneasy, as he sits down with the popcorn on the couch, and she plops down next to him.

“It’s hardly a horror movie,” she says, curling into his side and kicking her feet under the white blanket as Netflix loads up the title. “It’s just… eerie. Besides, it’s really good.” 

“Horror movies _are_ eerie. That’s the whole point,” Zuko groans, and she takes a fistful of popcorn from the bowl on his lap.

“Shush. It’s starting,” she hisses at him, stuffing the popcorn in

The scene is of a horse-drawn carriage riding through a gravel path that runs through a cornfield. It’s nighttime, presumably, and _of course_ it’s typically dark and stormy, with lightning crackling in the background, the only sound being the boom of thunder and the creaking of the carriage.

“Why does _every single horror movie ever_ start exactly the same way?” he whispers. 

She smiles and scoots closer to him to rest her cheek on his chest, just below his shoulder, draping an arm over his torso. “Shut up,” she whispers through a grin. 

The carriage gallops forward, past a leering scarecrow dressed in billowing black fabric with a pumpkin (carved into a creepy grin, which definitley doesn't help) for a head. Zuko suppresses a shudder.

And then the carriage driver is decapitated. The sole passenger, an middle-aged man with a white wig, peers out of the carriage and screams, opening the door and leaving the still-moving carriage.

Zuko looks away as the screen zooms in on the headless neck. He reaches for her hand with his, and doesn’t care how _corny_ this must be, he’s genuinely creeped out, and relaxes a little as her fingers close around his.

The man who was in the carriage is now in the cornfield, and inevitably, he comes face-to-face with the scarecrow, in a swell of music and a crack of lightning. Zuko jumps, almost overturning the popcorn bowl resting on his thighs. The man on screen seems to relax, before hearing a rustling in the cornstalks around him. Suddenly, a sword is drawn in a hiss of metal, and just like that, the man has lost his head.

“Pleasant,” Zuko murmurs sarcastically, as the camera focuses on the jack-o-lantern that now has blood streaked across it.

Katara looks up to him, pressing a quick kiss to his jawline. “You’ll be fine,” she whispers. “It’s mostly just people dying from here on out. It cools down.”

He smiles weakly down at her, squeezing her hand, sincerely hoping this is true.  


* * *

  
It did not, in fact, ‘cool down’. It didn’t help that the colors were mostly grays, and there was not one sunny scene over the course of the entire film. There were a few particularly icky scenes involving a tree and lots of blood, a man with very sharp teeth, and _so many_ headless corpses.

“I relate to Ichabod,” Zuko mumbles as the protagonist faints on screen after a sizable amount of blood is shown. Zuko looks rather queasy himself. 

The final scene shows Ichabod exiting a carriage on a snowy day in New York City, the buzz of Georgian era New England. Finally, it cuts to credits.

“I could’ve done without a lot of the blood in that,” Zuko groans, dimly realizing he’s still holding on to Katara’s hand like his life depends on it.

Katara sighs, hugging his body closer to hers.

“And how come it’s always rainy and stormy? Why is there always so much lightning but hardly any rain, ever?” Zuko asks, throwing up his free arm.

“It’s the _vibe_ of the movie, Zuko. The aesthetic, if you will,” she huffs and rolls her eyes good-naturedly. 

“And that was way scarier than you made it out to be,” he protests. “I mean, how is it that a _tree_ was the goriest part of the whole movie?!” 

“But it was good, right?” Her smile is smug. 

He glares down at her, before his mouth twitches up into a smirk. “Yeah,” he says after a pause. “It was good.” 

“Good, because I didn’t think I could keep on dating you if you didn't like Sleepy Hollow.” She scoots up and kisses his lips, bringing her hand to rest in the crook of his neck, still holding his hand in hers. His lips were soft on hers, tasting slightly of popcorn. 

“You’re a nerd, you know that?” He says once she pulls away and proceeds to stuff the rest of the popcorn into her mouth. 

“But you love me anyways," she replies with a wry wink.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmao yes I know Sleepy Hollow isnt even a horror movie, I just don't watch horror movies at ALL so this is what struck closest. Plus, this movie is SO GOOD, and by the way, here I'm talking about the 1999 version with Johnny Depp and Tim Burton. It was really fun to rewrite the first scenes into this fic using my own writing style!
> 
> Zuko was probably really OOC here, so my apologies!! I just had to get that hand-holding in :')
> 
> lots of love,  
> andrea


End file.
